


Take Me Home

by ViciousRhythm



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: BB8 as a very round kitten, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Reylo - Freeform, Snowshoes, wickedlywonderfulweekofreylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 19:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7119427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViciousRhythm/pseuds/ViciousRhythm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's adoption day at the animal shelter. It's also way too early for Rey to be awake on a Saturday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me Home

**Author's Note:**

> Based entirely on my experience with waking up to find that kittens were the order of the day, according to my roommates. Written for the Wickedly Wonderful Week Of Reylo flash challenge (and maybe swerving the prompt of snowshoes a bit...)

Rey wakes up to the shrill sound of her phone ringing and rolls over with a groan, hand flailing out into the sheets to find the stupid thing. It’s buried under a particular fold that ends in Rey toppling her phone onto the floor before she can catch it. The ringing stops for a few blessed seconds as it sits innocently on the floor, and then starts up again a moment later. With a heartfelt curse, Rey hauls her upper body off the side of the bed and makes a grab for it, hitting the button to answer when she sees Finn’s name on the screen.

“’lo?”

“Rey!” Finn’s voice comes over the phone, both excited and apprehensive. “Can we get a cat?”

Rey pulls the phone away to blink at it for a second, taking note that it’s eight in the god damn morning on a Saturday. “What.”

“We’re at the shelter,” Finn says, explaining almost nothing. “The apartment allows pets, right? Is it okay if we get a cat?”

“Finn, why-” Rey cuts herself off, slicing a hand through the air as if Finn could actually see her. “Nevermind. I’ll be on my way in a few minutes. Don’t buy any animals until I get there, okay?”

“Sure, sure.” Rey can almost see Finn nodding his head, and she can definitely hear Poe in the background, voice raised and high-pitched in a way that means he’s probably talking to a small animal. It doesn’t bode well for Rey’s vague thoughts about dissuading her roommates and best friends from taking home something small and fluffy. The process of getting out of bed is just that, a process, but Rey manages to get herself dressed and into her car without any major tragedies, so she calls it a win.

The problem becomes immediately evident as soon as she pulls into the parking lot of the county animal shelter. They’re having an adoption event with discounted fees, probably as a result of the influx of new kittens and puppies as the local strays have litters in the spring. She finds Finn and Poe easily enough, heads together as they’re huddled over a small orange and white tabby kitten that’s more circular than cat-shaped.

“Oh god.”

That’s all Rey has the time to get out before Finn and Poe are both babbling at her about how great this cat is, how it’s so smart and cute and look, Rey, just look! To be fair, it _is_ a very adorable little kitten, chubby and affectionate, but Rey is extremely hesitant to give the two boys the go-ahead to bring a baby into their apartment, even if it’s one that meows. Finn and Poe are great guys, that much is true, it’s just that Rey has no idea whether Poe has any experience caring for a pet, and she knows for certain Finn had never been allowed to have a pet before. It’s like trying to decide if a kid can take care of a new cat – Rey just doesn’t want to be stuck as the one cleaning litter boxes if the cat wasn’t even her idea to begin with.

She weakens pretty rapidly, if she’s being honest, but Rey does her best not to let the boys know she’s already developing a soft spot for the little ball of fur.

“Does it have a name?” Rey asks carefully, nails scratching gently behind the kitten’s ears while it purrs loudly.

“They’re just named for their litter so far,” Poe offers. “They said this one’s listed as BB-8. Eighth in the litter.”

Rey hums noncommittally and then makes the unfortunate error of looking up to see Finn making the most impressive pleading eyes at her.

“Finn,” she starts.

“We’ll take care of her, I swear,” he cuts in quickly. “Come on, it’s not like I’m irresponsible. You know that.”

She does, knowing Finn’s story is similar to her own. They’d both grown up having to do a lot of taking care of themselves – if in different ways – and Finn’s right. If he says he can handle the job of caring for a kitten, she ought to trust him.

“Fine,” she sighs eventually, after a round of very pointed silent stares from her two roommates. “But the first time she claws up the furniture, you two are going to be the ones dealing with it.”

“Deal!” Poe slaps a highfive into her open hand quickly, sealing the bargain before Rey can think better of it, and then promptly steals the round tabby out of her lap. Finn offers her a wink over Poe’s shoulder while Poe coos at the kitten cradled in his hands. Their friendship has long been a balancing act where someone gets stuck being the real adult in any given situation. It’s fair that Rey gets adult duty today, when Poe is clearly head over heels in love with the cat and Finn has already tossed his lot in supporting Poe. Poe had to be the referee for Rey and Finn’s rolling chair jousting last week, after all.

Rey rolls her eyes and leaves the boys to commune with their new baby, and takes a wander around herself. Lord knows none of them are in a hurry to get away from a courtyard full of small animals. Rey gravitates to the puppies herself, crouching beside a fenced off group of brown mutts that bear a passing resemblance to Labradors, only with much fuzzier ears and snub noses. The whole gaggle rushes over to her, pink tongues lolling, yapping at her with high-pitched excitement, and Rey takes the offered hand sanitizer so she can pet and hold them, knowing she won’t be taking any of them home but unable to resist the temptation.

Rey makes the rounds through the puppies, nearly breaking her own silent promise to not try to adopt any of them when a husky mix falls asleep in her arms. She makes it out eventually, finding Finn and Poe where they stand in front of the desk inside the proper reception area. She passes them by, checking in to make sure they have the adoption papers handled before sneaking a bit further into the shelter.

Despite the front courtyard being full of younger animals, there are still plenty of older cats and dogs, and even a couple of rabbits, waiting inside the building. The dogs are hidden in their own blocks, though Rey can hear them clearly enough, but the cats are all visible, staring out through the long glass window from behind the bars of smaller enclosures. The door to the cats is open, and Rey does a quick visual check on her roommates before slipping inside.

There are a few curious mewls, but the older cats are by and large more interested in napping than they are in Rey. A loud black cat near the bottom of the enclosures yowls at her and Rey huffs a soft laugh at the plea for attention.

“Kylo Ren,” she says out loud, reading his information car. “Well, you’re a handsome fellow, even if they gave you a weird name.” The cat yowls again, pressing his entire body along the bars and purring when Rey slides her finger through them to scratch a bit weakly at his ears. He preens under the attention and circles back for more petting, but Rey gets distracted a moment later when his upstairs neighbor sneaks a paw out to bat at her hair.

“Hey!” Rey says on an indignant laugh when the new cat catches a few stray hairs and pulls back in alarm. The expression on its face says it wasn’t expecting immediate attention. “That wasn’t very nice.”

The cat blinks at her, yawning and when its face settles back into a sleepy expression, Rey tips her head, trying to think of why the silly cat looks familiar. It’s not quite a Siamese, but it looks like a relative, and Rey snaps her fingers in triumph when it comes to her.

“You look like grumpy cat,” she says decisively. The cat doesn’t look terribly impressed and Kylo Ren is whining at her for attention again.

“It’s called a snowshoe,” a new voice says, male and somewhere over her right shoulder. Rey spins to find it belongs to a tall stranger who is currently depositing a somewhat fussy grey cat in the top row of cages.

“I’m sorry?”

“The breed is a snowshoe,” he restates, sounding a bit grumpy himself. “They’re a relative of Siamese cats, but they’re quieter and friendly. Pretty damn smart, too. That one’s named Kira, if you wanted to see her.”

“Oh no,” Rey starts. “I’m just here with my roommates. They’re getting a kitten.”

The man makes a face. “Of course they are.” He turns away, back to the grey cat, fiddling with the information card attached to the bars. “And I suppose you don’t actually want to look at any of the older cats, do you?”

She doesn’t, really, but he sounds so annoyed and dismissive, Rey’s stubborn streak kicks in and she says, “Yes, actually.”

He turns, blinks in surprise, and Rey feels pretty satisfied with herself until he finds his bearing and asks which cat she’d like to see. She can't exactly say she wants to see the snowshoe cat - Kira - now that she's already said no, so Rey does a quick scan to find an alternate cat. The black cat jumps in, yowling at her.

“That one,” Rey says decisively, pointing at the cat currently attempting to lodge his claws in the hem of her jeans.

“You sure you don’t want to see Kira?” he asks, walking over, and Rey notes that he is indeed _very_ tall, all broad shoulders and long limbs and waves of dark hair over an unconventionally handsome face. “Kylo is kind of a dick.”

He kneels to open the cage anyway, hesitating for a heartbeat but opening the door with a shrug when Rey doesn’t stop him. The black cat doesn’t go cooperatively, contrary to his plea for attention from Rey. Still, the man manages to heft the squirming cat into his arms and nods for Rey to follow him to another room. It’s a smaller room with a couple of chairs, cat toys and cushions littering the rest of the space.

“Here you go,” the man says, dumping Kylo unceremoniously on Rey’s lap. The cat immediately starts kneading at her knees, dulled claws still pricking her skin and making Rey wince. He settles as soon as Rey starts stroking his back, rumbling loudly and blinking languidly up at her.

“He doesn’t seem too bad to me,” Rey comments, a bit smug with the supposedly dick-ish cat curled up on her lap.

“Huh.” The man sounds baffled and looks it, eyebrows raised in mild surprise. “Well, isn’t that something. He hates pretty much everyone he hasn’t known since he was a kitten.”

Rey sends him a self-satisfied little grin, having to duck her head and bite her lip when she gets a genuine smile in return that does curious things to her pulse. On her lap, Kylo flops sideways and curls inward to latch onto her hand. Rey yelps, pulling her hand back from claws and teeth. It wasn’t an attack in earnest, but enough of a surprise that she startles the cat out of her lap and he lands somewhat gracefully on the floor, stalking over to a tufted red toy instantly.

“There it is,” the man says under his breath, glaring at Kylo a moment before turning to Rey and finally offering his hand to shake. “I’m Ben, by the way.”

“Rey,” she says, perfunctory, and shakes his hand. It’s much bigger than hers, wide in the palm and covered in tiny scratches across the back of his hand and his knuckles. “So you work with the older cats all the time?”

“Yeah,” he says with a dismissive shrug. “The kittens get all the attention though. Lots of the older cats have been here for a while. Not every day someone comes in looking for a cat that’s not new and cute.”

“Well,” Rey starts, nudging her foot against Kylo’s wiggling hind end and interrupting his stalking of the red toy, earning herself an indignant meow. “I think there are advantages to getting an older cat. You don’t have to guess how they might behave, and they’re already litter trained.”

“I try to tell people…” Ben trails off, frustrated. “But everybody wants the cute ones and forgets they’re going to grow up eventually.”

Rey spends so long debating the virtues of older and younger pets, playing with Kylo while she talks to Ben, that she doesn’t really realize they’ve veered entirely off-topic and she’s telling him precisely why he’s wrong about her favorite superhero with Kylo on his back, trying to catch a feathered toy out of her hands when Finn knocks on the glass window. Rey jerks toward the noise to see her two roommates standing with a small cardboard box shaped like a house cradled in Poe’s arms, a sheaf of papers in Finn’s. Poe shoots her a grin and makes some very obvious eyebrows at Ben on her behalf, and Rey feels her face heat up.

“I’m sorry,” she says hurriedly, yanking the toy out of Kylo’s reach and standing. “I have to go. I’m sure we need to get…things. For the kitten.” She gestures weakly to her two friends at the window, feeling a bit foolish.

“I can, uh, make you a list?” Ben offers a bit uncertainly. “If you like? Of things to get.”

“That would be great,” Rey says, latching onto the excuse and deliberately ignoring Finn tapping pointedly at his wrist like anyone actually wears a watch anymore. She’s even more deliberately ignoring Poe, who’s shifted to stand out of Ben’s line of sight, making pointing motions between him and Rey and waggling his eyebrows like the obnoxious ass he is.

Rey gathers up Kylo off the floor, ignoring his token struggle for freedom and scratching his ears until he calms down and allows himself to be carried back to his cage. Ben gets him settled and then looks a bit sadly at the black cat for a moment.

“One day someone’ll adopt that menace,” he says, shaking his head. “God, I hope so anyway, or I might have to do it myself.”

“I kind of like him,” Rey chimes in. “The new kitten gets dibs, but maybe once she’s settled. And if they get along.”

Ben gives her a strangely hopeful look, soft around the eyes but something in the line of his mouth saying he doesn’t actually think Rey will follow through. He nods anyway, and Rey bites her lip, unsure if she even _can_ assure him she’s serious. She doesn’t even know if Finn and Poe are going to be able to take care of the one kitten, let alone be able to handle a fussy adult cat that would be Rey’s responsibility.

“I’m gonna put my number on here,” Ben says, eyes trained on the yellow pad of paper in front of him while Rey, Finn, and Poe wait for him to finish the list of items he recommends for a new kitten. “In case you have questions or anything. Or if you want to check in on Kylo. He really seems to like you more than most humans,” he adds, looking up and handing the paper to Rey with a crooked and somewhat self-conscious smile.

“You could discuss it over dinner or something,” Poe pipes up from over Rey’s shoulder, dodging when she turns to smack his shoulder. “Maybe you could see a movie too – ow, _Rey_.”

“Are you…asking me out _for_ her?” Ben asks uncertainly.

“It’s honestly probably a good idea,” Finn adds, and Rey spins to him with a look of utter betrayal on her face. “What?” he hisses. “It’s true, you never-”

“Do you want to go out sometime?” Ben cuts in over the argument Rey is fully prepared to start with Finn.

“Yes!” Rey blurts out, thankful he’s decided to rescue her and also a little concerned she’ll find a way to talk herself into a corner if she doesn’t just say yes outright. “Yes, that would be…lovely.”

“Lovely,” Ben repeats, a grin twitching at the edge of his full lips. Rey has the feeling she’s being made fun off.

“I’ll call you,” she says, snatching the paper with his list – and his number – to her chest and charging out of the building before she or Finn or Poe can do anything else to embarrass her further.


End file.
